Weekend wrap: Expeditionary links

13 May 2011

Here are a few late-breaking links as well as some stories we couldn't get to this week:

• With Osama bin Laden dead, POLITICO has discovered "war fatigue" among House Republicans, now uncertain about whether they want to maintain an unbroken, open-ended commitment to the war in Afghanistan.

• Secretary Gates this week bemoaned the explosion of leaks about the bin Laden operation -- on Thursday, he told Marines at Camp Lejeune that the administration had agreed to release no operational details of what went on. That lasted all the way until the next day, he complained, and on Friday the Pentagon went so far as to urge reporters not to identify the SEALs who took part in the raid if -- or when -- they learn their names.

• Readers here in the National Capital Region who drive on I-395 have been watching a planning and traffic disaster unfold in slow motion as DoD has built a huge new office building in Alexandria, Va. Locals fear it will cause massive gridlock as soon as all the workers now in other offices around the National Capital Region move in to their central location. Rep. Jim Moran, the local Democratic congressman, has been fighting the new Mark Center tooth and claw because he wants DoD to help ease the congestion somehow, and a provision on the defense bill may give him a glimmer of hope: He's written a letter to Gates asking him to delay opening the new building.

• You read earlier about how Gates says the U.S. still doesn't know much about the Libyan rebel alliance. Well, do we know at least how long the U.S. will continue to help it? Yes -- as long as it takes, the White House said Friday.

• U.S. Navy sailors don't just sail around on their luxury cruise ships, working on their tans and buying souvenirs in their awesome liberty ports, the service wants you to know. Sailors also are teaming up with soldiers on duty in Afghanistan to help protect everyone from deadly improvised explosive devices.